The battle against pollution and destruction of the environment has been waged for three decades. Instructions, bans, threshold levels and standards imposed at installations and on entire systems have had positive effect, but these measures have had only little impact on the use (or waste) of resources and finite sources of energy. “Materials need to be handled and treated differently,” said Xaver Edelmann of the Swiss Federal Laboratory for Material Science and Technology (Empa) in the welcoming address to Re-Source 2011, held on 8 - 9 November 2011 in St. Gallen. He said, “We must distance ourselves from the throwaway society.” Karl Kienzl, Deputy Director of Austria’s Federal Environment Agency, said, “In the absence of lifestyle changes towards more sustainability, increases in efficiency will be offset by the increased demand for material goods.”
Development in recent years has emphasised increased materials and energy efficiency - in order to maintain and boost prosperity in the industrialised world, and to achieve an adequate standard of living in developing and emerging economies. Although increases in energy are absolutely necessary, they alone do not suffice in the long term and demand a decrease in the consumption of resources. The principles of sustainable development must also apply to the use of natural resources. “The national and European ambition must be to make prosperity and economic growth more independent of resource consumption and to enable a switch to energy saving, low emissions and a sustainable competitive economy,“ said Thomas Rummler of Germany’s Federal Ministry for Environment at the start of the conference.
States must coordinate action strategies
Opportunities to take action already exist at the local level. Consumers, policymakers and industry may well exert influence but the challenges are at the global level. They must collaborate if they wish to avert market distortions and competitive disadvantages in their regions. The use of natural resources must be negotiated between nations as well as today’s and future generations.
Innovations and investments vested in a global economy call for:
- sending political signals and concrete proposals, national laws and international agreements
- new models of prosperity that are sustained without a steady rise in resource consumption
- adequate, transparent information with which consumers can make responsible decisions about the goods and services they purchase.
The three countries will portray concepts of sustainable resource management by introducing a number of successful ‘lighthouse projects’ that trace the entire value-added chain from extraction of the raw material to disposal or recycling of the end product. Whereas technical and organisational measures are key in raw material extraction, production, distribution and disposal, consumer purchasing behaviour is motivated by subjective influences. Swiss delegates will address in talks how objective criteria might be applied in this regard. The final plenary session will focus on models of growth and prosperity which will prove key in defining the course of resource management in the long term.
Media contacts:
Switzerland
Federal Office for the Environment FOEN, Media Office,
Rebekka Reichlin
Tel.: +41 -(0)31 322 92 46
email: rebekka [dot] reichlin [at] bafu [dot] admin [dot] ch
Austria
Federal Environment Agency
Ingeborg Zechmann, Pressesprecherin
Mobil: +43-(0)664 611 90 94
Tel: +43-(0)1-313 04/5413
email: ingeborg [dot] zechmann [at] umweltbundesamt [dot] at
Germany
Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
Press Department
Tel. +49-(0)30-18-305-2015
email: presse [at] bmu [dot] bund [dot] de
Umweltbundesamt
Martin Ittershagen, Head, Press and Public Relations
Tel: +49-(0)340-2103-2122
email: martin [dot] ittershagen [at] uba [dot] de
